Minister Biltgen wants lessons learnt from Medico incident

(CS) Communication and justice minister François Biltgen has said lessons about data security need to be drawn from the recent security breach of the Medico database.

At a press conference on Thursday, Mr Biltgen confirmed that the sports ministry had filed charges against the unknown person who gained access to the medical database, featuring over 48,000 files on licensed athletes in Luxembourg.

A search for virtual traces has already been started to track the computer-hacking culprit.

The legal situation remains difficult however, said Mr Biltgen, adding that theft and attack on an information system were likely charges.

Sports minister Romain Schneider commented on Thursday that the culprit was not a hacker but rather a thief who had stolen the password of a doctor to gain access to the database.

It is unclear at this point whether the doctor too could face disciplinary action, as they had written their username and password on a post-it note stuck to their computer screen. Mr Biltgen called this behaviour neglectful.

In reaction to Mr Biltgen's statement Pirate Party head Sven Clement said that many questions had been left open and that training courses would not solve the problem. The party also criticised the criminalisation of the offender and demanded that they should go free if it emerges that no files were published and no damages were incurred.

While it has been suggested that the hacker is a member of the Pirate Party, this information could not be confirmed by Mr Clement when speaking to wort.lu/en on Thursday.